The Effect of a Step Increase in Depth and Decay upon Dispersion of Coastal Effluent Discharges

Coastal wastewater-discharged effluents contain a mixture of pollutants with decay rates that vary with water depth. Analytical models using a two-dimensional advection-diffusion equation are presented to study the effects of a cross-stream sudden depth change and decay on mixing and dispersing steady discharge of effluents through a sea outfall. The solutions are illustrated graphically by plotting contours of concentration, resembling snapshots of discharged effluent plumes in the far-field. Different shapes of effluent plumes are observed due to the variability of length of the step seabed, and the concentration at the step seabed is formulated to measure how much has discharged effluents dispersed into or out of the shallow coastal waters.